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Holiday-Truth Hotel Reviews

Kim from Peterborough travelled to with Eclipse on a family holiday.
There were 2 adults and 2 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 08 2006

Kim rated the as follows:

Cleanliness
Location
Staff
Food
Entertainment

said:

Just had a great holiday at Playa Garden. You couldn't wish for a better location-in a quiet area, with a few shops and restaurants, and on the beach front. A lovely clean sandy beach with shallow waters.

We booked self catering, but ended up paying for the hotel buffet for the whole 2 weeks as the children didn't want to leave the hotel because of the mini disco/entertainment. We always ate in peace while the children joined in the mini disco. You could reserve your table at the Papaya bar during the day, so we always had a good spot for the evening entertainment. The buffet was good value for money, with plenty to choose from, even for my fussy daughter!

The kids club was excellent-my son attended many sessions and loved Crazy Carla, Jolly Jo & Jellybean Jennie. We paid for my son to go to the swim kids sessions, there were only 2-4 children in each class and he managed to learn to swim. The instructors Amy & Chris were excellent with the children.

The Garden Entertainment staff worked really hard, day & night-my kids thought the mini disco was great [we are all still singing the songs]. We enjoyed the shows-worth watching mums just for Eric!

The rooms were clean and adequate for a holiday, although I would only give it a 3 star rating not 4star plus as the brochure states. We were in the smallest block [4] at the front of the complex so it was very quiet. Blocks 1 & 8 are the best as by the beach.

The only problem was sunbeds by the pool-there were signs stating do not reserve sunbeds but no one had the courage to remove the towels! The hotel would not let the reps remove them either. People were getting up at 5am to put towels out & some would not return until the afternoon! Do not blame the Germans as there were more English/Irish at this hotel. On our last night several towels were even on sunbeds at 11:30pm as the entertainment had finished-my daughter did move about 8 of them [and again before we left in the morning]. The indoor pool was great for getting the kids out of the midday sun, while we could get empty sunbeds in the adjoining 'sun trap' patio.

A great holiday,thanks to First Choice reps/Garden Entertainment staff.

Moreen from Isle of Skye travelled to with First Choice on a family holiday.
There were 2 adults and 2 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 07 2006

Moreen rated the as follows:

Cleanliness
Location
Staff
Food
Entertainment

said:

We have just returned from a great weeks holiday at this hotel with some friends of ours. The apartments are really nice laid out in blocks around the pool. the kitchen area is small but adequate for making breakfast, small snacks etc.

The location is great for a family holiday - not too busy and right on the beach. The pools were great - divided into different areas of different depths so area suitable for all levels of swimmers. Our kids had a brill time - plently inflatables around for them to play with. Lovely sandy beach and the sea is very shallow so safe for the kids to play in. Pedalos, banana boat and para sailing all avaiable.

Because we were with friends the kids were not bothered about the kids clubs. But from what I saw of them they were very well organised and the children seemed to be having a great time.

The food at the hotel was really good. We ate lunch most days at the snack bar bit at the poolside. Most nights we paid to eat from the buffet at the hotel. Really reasonable price and good food with plenty of choice. Found the staff very helpful and pleasant.
We ate at the Bull Steak House one night and it was very enjoyable. Not too many alternative places to eat round about the hotel but buses are very frequent and can take you into Alcudia.

Because we had young children we did not seem much of the late evening entertainment but is sounded great. The mini-disco which is on every night was a big hit. all the kids were dancing along and doing the actions to the songs. The reps were very enthusiastic and had a great rapore with the children.

Would definitely recommend this hotel for families - especially with younger children.

mrs jones from cardiff travelled to with first choice on a family holiday.
There were 2 adults and 2 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 07 2006

mrs jones rated the as follows:

Cleanliness
Location
Staff
Food
Entertainment

said:

I thought the hotel was in a beautiful location and was in such a pleasant setting. The beach on your doorstep what else can you wish for! Its the prettiest stretch of beach in the area and we made good use of it, however the pools were very good and the kids love splahing around in them!

The food at the hotel was fine, buffet so its pretty much what you expect, there is some fab restaurants in nearby ca'n picafort and port'd alcudia so if your going venture off on your own steam.

Most of all the first choice staff were fantastic, Jemma and Neil were so helpful and friendly. The kids reps were amazing, our kids couldn't bear to leave Jolly Jo, Loopy Lindsey, Jellybean Jen and the rest of the gang!

I do hope to return next year, although I do know it is only available for Eclipse guests and not the general First Choice brochure due to their contract finishing this year and their replacement hotel holiday village viva, which we may also consider as playa garden will not have first choice kids club available.

Just want to say we had such a fab holiday and thank the first choice team loads!!!!

liz from dublin travelled to with falcon, first choice on a family holiday.
There were 2 adults and 2 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 06 2006

liz rated the as follows:

Cleanliness
Location
Staff
Food
Entertainment

said:

We stayed here for two weeks, it felt like two months!Gardens were nice, staff are very rude except for one barman called Javier he was very helpfull and polite.

Around the pool there were women and men covered in tattoos drinking 6 packs of bottled beer from the shop all day at the pool drunk as skunks and kids there some of which were their own.

This to me is 2 star not what you expect from a four star. There wasn't even a life gaurd or a member of staff to stop this.

Falcon staff are not trained properly to do their job and every thing they do for their own run kids club was chargable!!

The garden in house kids club was excellent and my daughter loved them. My teenage son however had nothing to do as first choice wavelenght club was closed due to lack of members, I picked this holiday for his benifit, well this is what the note said that was pinned to the club door even though there was about 20 teenagers from England, Ireland there!!

We asked first choice rep called neil (which by the way was very rude and unhelpful, why this club was closed and he said that is was a waste of time opening the club up for such a small amount of kids.

Yes we were very happy with this response (not)so my husband took over and gathered all the teenagers together and got them to join in with the adults inhouse entertainment team.

Some days they were late starting and the entertainment leader on one paticular day had to leave 20 mins early so my husband said he would stay to let the kids finish their game of football.

He was told by the reception staff that it would cost 6 euros an hour to use the court to finish the game!( even though we were paid guest already!!)so it seems that you pay twice for your holiday to playa garden , once when you book and then again when you get there.

It says the falcon kids clubs are free apart from the swim kids and the cresh and the soccor school that is, yet we had to pay for face painting, movie(a dvd in the club hut were kids had to bring their own drink and sweets even though it cost 10 euros!)absolutly every thing was charged for.

In Irish brochure there is supposed to be a welcome pack in your fridge when you arrive but this was also not there. We got a bottle of champange from the hotel as it was their 20th aniversary of garden hotels.

It was not from first choice or falcon. whats happing to first choice it used to be the best holiday company to go with now it seems its the worst.

I will NEVER go first choice, falcon again. I will also point out that this hotel will not be available to the English and Irish public next year as we were told by a member of the hotel that first choice are so bad at their job there that the owner has dropped them even though they have at the moment 88% of the guest staying at that hotel.

It makes you think whats going on doesnt it? One more point before I go, the restaurant is terrible, the amount of food that you get to chose from is minute and badly presented. Pork every night.

All the deserts were stodgy buttercreme cake(one or two cakes that were available that is)and I actually lost weight!

So the moral of the story is... if you have good taste and enjoy the luxury of 4 and 5 star accomidations while away, if you look for your teenage son to be entertained and happy or even if you dont, do not, come to playa garden hotel. its a dump.

Mitchell from Congleton travelled to with First Choice on a family holiday.
There were 2 adults and 2 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 06 2006

Mitchell rated the as follows:

Cleanliness
Location
Staff
Food
Entertainment

said:

We have just returned from a great two week family holiday at Playa Garden Hotel. The location of the complex is right on the beach, which helps as the poolside sunbeds are all taken early morning. The hotel has signs up in english & spanish advising that the 'reserving of sunbeds is forbidden' - however they were not translated into german ! (who were the worst culprits in my opinion).

The rooms are ok (with air-con as well) and the kitchen area is small but adequate for simple attempts at pasta dishes/sandwiches etc. The room was cleaned 5 days a week with change of towels & sheets so no complaints.

We used the hotels 'garden buffet' most nights (12.30 euros for adults, 3.60 euros for kids) and then enjoyed the nightly hotel entertainment in the same outdoor area. Both our kids loved the Mini-Disco each night and the outdoor seating area is well designed so parents can view their kids dancing from the comfort of their dinner table. The food was to a good standard (salad bar was brill) with a different theme each night. Good value for an all you can eat style buffet. The hotel bar prices are a bit high at 3.70 euros for a pint of lager, compared to bars in the town. A bottle oh house wine was 10 euros. We wouldn't recommend the 'Papaya' poolside snackbar (open in the daytime) as we found it too busy, too expensive and poor quality.

The Garden Entertainment staff never stopped working, as they would be gathering people from the poolside to play beach volleyball/waterpolo/football from 11am and would still be on stage at 11pm when the show finished. The shows included 'Mama Mia' (Abba) and 'We will rock you'(Queen).

The pool area was very busy so we avoided it until later in the day, after the rush. There are a collection of inflatables for the children to play with provided by the hotel. The pool at the top of the complex is a lot quieter but is not kid friendly as very deep and we couldn't touch the bottom at any point. However there are smaller small pools dotted around for the toddlers.

Lorna from London travelled to with First choice on a family holiday.
There were 4 adults and 1 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 05 2006

Lorna rated the as follows:

Cleanliness
Location
Staff
Food
Entertainment

said:

Overall a very good hotel. Pool and garden areas are lovely, very clean.

Hotel rooms are spacious and again very clean. We were self-catering, used the kitchen area for breakfast daily.

Supermarket attached to hotel suplies all the basics with a larger one 2 mins away. Reception staff are very rude and don't have much time for you.

Pool very busy for middle of May, sunbeds being reserved at the crack of dawn, so you are lucky to get one by 10am. There are signs up telling people not to reserve sunbeds but are ignored.

Childrens entertainment is pretty good and staff are great.

Watkinson from Leeds travelled to with Eclipse on a family holiday.
There were 2 adults and 1 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 08 2005

Watkinson rated the as follows:

Cleanliness
Location
Staff
Food
Entertainment

said:

Rooms were adequate but a bit basic, and did not feel were cleaned to a standard of a 4 star, other than that no complaints, and quiet at night.

Nicely laid out in gardens and around pools, which were excellent. Sunbeds like everywhere else need to be up early but still available by 8.15am. and the location right on the beach which was the best we had seen is brilliant.

As were self catering had the buffet on 3 occasions was ok, and a la carte once, could not fault this and was good. Happy hour is a good idea 7-8pm, 2 for 1 on wine as well, can book your table, get in early. Bar service appalling all the time. long queues, no rush to serve anyone very slow...

Restaurants out side the complex of which there is not a lot of choice. we tried most, thought Bulls Steak house was excellent, as was Italian.

Entertainment staff were excellent and made the holiday all the better. Very professional and work incredibly hard - Johanna is gorgeous !!

Overall fantastic holiday, best we have had and would defo recommend and go back.

fawkes from essex travelled to with first choice on a family holiday.
There were 2 adults and 1 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 06 2005

fawkes rated the as follows:

Cleanliness
Location
Staff
Food
Entertainment

said:

We have just returned from our second visit to Playa Garden. We love the location of the apartments a two minute walk to the beach and in a nice quite area away from Alcudia but only a bus ride a way to other areas.

The complex is so clean, they are always mopping the reception area, the pool is cleaned in the evenings and they sweep and water the surronding areas every morning(some people on this review said it wasnt cleaned, maybe they didnt get up early to see it!!).

The reception staff are very friendly and very helpful even when they work long hours and have people moaning about very trival things!

People have complained about the size of the kitchen!? Why? Are they going to cook a roast dinner then? The kitchen is smaller than what we've stayed in before but what to people expect, it has a kettle, hob and microwave!

We have stayed is some places where there has been no kettle and you have to boil a saucepan of water for a cup of tea!! so come on everyone, who really cooks a PROPER meal on holiday!

The entaintment staff are fantastic, we were a little worried that Sarah and Tony wouldn't be there this year as they make this place but yes luckly they were. What ever these guys are paid it should be doubled!

They work so hard I have no idea when they get the chance to reherse for the shows they put on in the evening!! We didnt join in the day time games etc as we are beach people(and what a beautiful beach) even so, Sarah etc always said hello to us in the evenings.

Whenever we did go past the pool in the day the entaintment looked like great fun and once again the team working hard and laughing and joking even in the heat!

I think people have been putting their reviews for playa garden (in playa muro) under the Alcudia review.

Most evenings we ate in the complex, some people have said the buffet was poor - well we didnt think so. The food was very nicely laid out a lot of effort had gone into presentation. The food was very tasty and so much of it, lots of choice to sort all tastebuds.

Would we go back again - if we go back to majorca we wouldnt stay anywhere else.

K Hopkins from Newport travelled to with Eclipse Direct on a family holiday.
There were 2 adults and 2 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 06 2005

K Hopkins rated the as follows:

Cleanliness
Location
Staff
Food
Entertainment

said:

We have just returned from a great holiday at the Playa Gardens and would definately return there.
The hotel location is excellent. Play de Muro has just a few hotels, supermarkets, and places to eat, but it is more than adequate. It's just a short 10 minute / 10 Euro taxi ride to Alcudia when you need a change of scene and better choice of restaurants etc. (Ask hotel reception staff for restaurant recommendations).
The hotel also has direct access to a long sandy beach. The sea is shallow for a long way so very safe for children.
Staff are very helpful and the hotel is kept very clean with the pools cleaned and baby pool refilled nightly and public areas always spotless.
The pool area is great with 3 baby pools, one large deep and one large shallow pool.Although the dreaded towels on sunbeds situation is certainly a problem, as long as you are at the pool for 9 it's fine and most people with young children are.
The hotel entertainment was of a high standard and enjoyable with shows from the hotel entertainment team and visiting tribute shows. Some people have written that the hotel is noisy if staying in certain blocks because of the entertainment, but this stops at 11pm and, as nearly everyone there is part of a family, most go to bed soon after. Because of the hotel location and because it is a family hotel there is no noise at all after this - no distant music from clubs, no passing taffic, no people coming in at all hours banging doors and having parties.

The buffet is good value and very convenient. Although we were glad to be self catering as the food could be very samey, we did eat there on about 5 nights and there was a good selection. Do not eat at the two restaurants that look the same across the street as the food is vile and overpriced. The hotel steakhouse was nice and snack bar pretty good for a quick lunch although service here and for drinks at the bar in the evening was painfully slow.

The apartments are on 3 floors with 10 on each floor, so quiet.They are a really good size, especially the living room. Yes the kitchen is small, but it just means you have to keep up with the washing up as a few dirty dishes take up all the room. It is perfectly adequate and I don't know anyone who wants to cook a large meal on holiday. There is plenty of room to throw together breakfast or some bread and cheese. The kitchen has 2 cooking rings, a microwave, kettle and toaster. What more do you need? The balcony is a good size and safe for children.

The First Choice kids club and creche were excellent and located in a separate airconditioned wooden building with 2 rooms and an outdoor play area. The hotel also offers a daily children's activity programme.

I would certainly recommend the hotel.Although it would be too quiet for teenagers and maybe too packed with kids for couples, it is perfect for families with young children because of its location and facilities.

Lynn from Rayleigh travelled to with First Choice on a family holiday.
There were 2 adults and 2 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 10 2004

Lynn rated the as follows:

Cleanliness
Location
Staff
Food
Entertainment

said:

Unfortunately rain spoilt the trip. Hotel was lovely shame about some of the older kids in it. Indoor pool would have been great if you had not had to put up with the language.Gym could not be used because of under aged kids mucking around in it. Do not go last week in October.

Hayley Whittingham from Bedford travelled to with First choice on a family holiday.
There were 2 adults and 1 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 09 2004

Hayley Whittingham rated the as follows:

Cleanliness
Location
Staff
Food
Entertainment

said:

The hotel and rooms were spotless and the staff very friendly but the kitchens in the apartments were tiny and impossible to cook in for the family.The closeness to the beach was great but it was quite far from the major attractions and we spent a fortune on taxis as the buses were always packed full.The entertainment was pretty good but it did get very noisy in the rooms till quite late at night which was hard with a 19 month old.All in all it was a lovely resort but better for older children.One thing I wouldn't recommend though is the food from the snack bar...not a nice experience!

Beckie from Nottingham travelled to with First Choice on a family holiday.
There were 2 adults and 1 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 09 2004

Beckie rated the as follows:

Cleanliness
Location
Staff
Food
Entertainment

said:

Would recommend this hotel to anyone. We had a fab time. It was our first holiday abroad with our 2 year old and we did not know what to expect. Not the cheapest holiday we have ever had but well worth paying the extra to guarantee a good time. Hotel right next to the beach and boat docks for boat trips directly outside.

Reps entertainment was great and the external entertainment that came in some nights was great. Recommend watching the Chinese acrobats if they are there!!!

Ate and stayed at the hotel most nights for childrens disco, bingo at 9pm (sad I know!!) then entertainment until 11pm.

Other people were lovely that were staying there - especially Beverley, David and Simon (in case they read this!!) No problems at this time of year for sunbeds. Went out at 10am and could still get them.

Staff great in reception and always happy to help.

All in all a great holiday and although would not go back straight away would consider it in a few years....

Isobel from Todmorden travelled to with Eclipse on a family holiday.
There were 2 adults and 2 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 08 2004

Isobel rated the as follows:

Cleanliness
Location
Staff
Food
Entertainment

said:

The hotel food is very good I had two meals here and I thought it was delicious amd there is alot to choose from, The swimming pools is fantastic, it is very big with lots of room, there are 3 pools, one for little kids, another one that is shallow the goes quite deep and one that is very deep which you can jump in! The hotel staff are friendly and nice. The rooms were spotless! The hotel hotel is a minute from the beach. It is a bus ride away from Alcudia but there is plenty to do around the hotel with mini arcades and other things. The entertainment is not too bad but its more for grown ups.

miss r bell from newcastle travelled to with first choice on a family holiday.
There were 3 adults and 1 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 08 2004

miss r bell rated the as follows:

Cleanliness
Location
Staff
Food
Entertainment

said:

this hotel was enjoyable for all ages of the family, the entertainment was excellent with a different show every night. the food was pleasing with a viraity of differnt plates (food). i would definatly call back to this hotel for a break we are all looking forward to our next visit.